and Toby Franklin all placed. Note several different names from the Clyde Cole entry. Another historic test of team depth in late December was the Windsor Tournament; the field

included teams from Sections Two, Three, Five, and Eleven (Long Island’s Huntington). The host school won with 184 to 155 ½ for runner-up Norwich.

Windsor had more champions, with the Purple having more place finishers. That would be reversed later in the season. Runners-up Matt Downey, Joe Telesky and Dan Jenkins lost close decisions in the finals. Sam Rifanburg, Tom Stoddard and Dan Jennings were consolation winners. Drew Downey and Kevin Slater added fourth place finishes, with Slater upsetting the top seed at his weight. There would be a chance to reverse the outcome versus Windsor soon, as the younger wrestlers rapidly developed and the veterans became more determined.

Near season end, the highlight of Section Four wrestling was the STAC Championship, hosted by Norwich for the first and possibly last time, as the conference soon expanded

dramatically. Norwich delighted a largely local crowd and stunned fans and folks from all around the STAC and Section by scoring 211 points to JC’s 203.

all the Norwich wrestlers,placed, with Dan Jenkins and Dan Jennings vital runners-up. It was a total team effort. Four of the Johnson City champions would go on later to be semifinalists at the highly regarded NY States; their team was then ranked in the top 25 for the country. Every Norwich

powers Windsor, Forks, Waverly and Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton in the field, as well as other schools having

good wrestlers at some weights.

Windsor had defeated Norwich in their Christmas Invitational, but the outcome was reversed dramatically

“at our house” with 198 points for host Norwich over

Windsor’s 148 ½. Tom Rowe’s headline again summed it well: “Total Team Effort Gives Norwich ‘B’ Title”. As they trod out of the gym, the Windsor Coach said to Coach K,

“You beat the …………. out of us. Why aren’t you ranked higher?” As we left later, Coach Whaley chortled, “They can have the paper, we’ll take the gold’” Coach Alger added his

favorite “No excuses.”

Norwich had won two major tourneys in eight days through the amazing feat of placing all 14 entries in their

weight classes against top notch competition. The

Purple had eight finalists, with Matt Downey, Neil

Peraza, and Joe Telesky champions, and Drew

Downey, Sam Rifanburg, Dan Jenkins, Tom Stoddard

and Dan Jennings all runners-up. Buster Crandall,

Aaron Whaley, Steve Doing, Joe Winton, Kevin Slater,

and Keith Evans were consolation finalists, adding

many points to the impressive total score. Evans was

the last to wrestle in the placing round (consolation

semifinals), so the coaches rounded up his teammates

who stood at mat side cheering Keith to the win. All 14

Norwich wrestlers had advanced to the Sectional

Championships!

At the Championship Finals, Norwich was a strong third to Johnson City and Chenango Forks. There were nine Purple place winners in the 14 weights. It was clear that this experience and incentive would help the younger wrestlers.

Many of those would go on in subsequent seasons to

place higher and win titles.

Norwich was on the map of New York wrestling, highly

recruited by college coaches, largely because of one division representing over 400 schools.

As seniors in 1993, Keith Evans, Tom Stoddard and Dan Jennings were labeled as “Norwich’s Three Bears”

in the official program at States. In their success they

scored more points than any other individual school in

New York State. Later in the decade Joe Telesky was a

national runner-up wrestling as an underclassman for

Division III Brockport; in 1999 freshman Joe Downey

at the University of Buffalo became an NCAA Division I

qualifier for nationals. The successes of Norwich

Wrestling in the 80’s and 90’s has been reinforcedmost recently with the Section IV Class B and Division II titles captured this past season, and coaches Terry Hagenbuch, Mark

Mussarallo, and Bob Hagenbuch were elated by two Division II State Champions in Albany, Frank Garcia and Tristan

Rifanburg. Many of the names in this article are familiar to local wrestling fans, as these wrestlers are frequently sons of former Purple matmen. The coaches are predominantly products of Norwich wrestling. The junior program, coached by Tim Scheer, another Norwich standout, has been noticeably strong. It appears that Purple Pin